For most NFL teams, Week 18 is either a coronation or a collapse. But for the New York Giants, it might be a chance to settle a very petty score—with perfect timing.
According to the newly released 2025 schedule—and she's a gauntlet—the G-Men will close the regular season at home against the Dallas Cowboys in early January. If the football gods have a sense of humor (and recent history suggests they do), this could be the perfect moment for Big Blue to torpedo Brian Schottenheimer’s postseason hopes in front of the entire NFC East.
Let’s face it: this Giants season might be over by then. But playing spoiler? That’s something this team might be built for—especially if Jaxson Dart is under center. A little rookie chaos to end the year? We are so here for that.
Giants could ruin Cowboys playoff hopes in Week 18
If the G-Men go through growing pains in 2025—and they probably will—Week 18 might not carry playoff weight for Big Blue. But that doesn’t mean it won’t matter. It could be Dart’s first real audition as the starter. And what better way to announce your arrival than to hand Dallas a season-ending, playoff-ruining loss... at home?
Let’s not forget: the Cowboys are coming off a miserable 2024 season. They missed the playoffs in, and then... hired Brian Schottenheimer as their head coach after they fumbled extension talks with Mike McCarthy. It was an uninspired hire, a panic move from a team that refuses to change anything meaningful. He’s been coaching since gas was under $2 and hasn’t evolved much since.
And now, in poetic Week 18 fashion, the guy many believe had no business getting the Cowboys job could watch his first season end not with a bang... but a Dart.
The Giants haven’t given Dallas a run for its money in a long time. The Cowboys have dominated this rivalry for over a decade. But this is the kind of stage where the energy shifts—where rookies become legends and uninspiring coaches get exposed.
If Dart starts—and that’s a very real possibility if the Giants are mathematically eliminated—it injects a dose of adrenaline into a game that could otherwise feel meaningless, especially in East Rutherford Even if he doesn't this just feels like a trap game. But Dart has the arm, the confidence, and the raw upside to pull off the kind of game that throws a wrench into a rival’s season.
Week 18 is set up to be the ultimate trap game for Schottenheimer and Co. And if the Giants bring the same brand of late-season chaos that defined their 2007 and 2011 runs, don’t be surprised if they leave the Cowboys stunned, embarrassed, and watching the playoffs from the couch again.
In the end, it might not be a playoff push, but a perfectly-timed faceplant for Dallas at the hands of the Giants is a massive win in and of itself.
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